Cricket 1912

230 CEICKET : A WEEKLY EECOED OF THE GAME. J u n e 15, 1912. A Chat about Mr. T. J. Matthews. “ It is better to be b om lucky than rich,” says an old adage. I don’t know— I was born unlucky and by no means rich. But that is past remedying, though one may hope for better things in one’s next incarnation. Who knows ? One might be bom a first class cricketer, perhaps — preferably not a wicket-keeper. I have had some, thanks, though not in first-class company. Was Thomas James Matthews bom lucky ? Fortune favoured him in his selection for the Fourteenth Australian Team, perhaps. Y et, as he had already represented Australia at home, he might well have found a place even had the famous six been with the side. Then— so say some— the fickle jade was again at his elbow when on the Old Trafford ground he did the hat trick twice in his first test against South Africa. But anyway, he did it, and thus has won for himself a record in the game’s history not likely soon to need brackets. Lucky or not, Thomas James Matthews is a very able and a very keen cricketer ; and a man of whom that can bo said deserves all the luck that comes his way. And Jimmy Matthews is a so much better cricketer than he looks. You would not think to see him during his first few minutes at wickets that he was at all likely to stay long. He really has not much style, and his strokes are not conspicuously varied or flashing. But he stays, and the runs come. Keen eyes he has, and a big heart, and he knows the game. Oh, he’s all right at the popping crease, is Jimmy Matthews ! Not one of the world’s great batsmen, yet a man likely to score his fifty any time, and more likely than most to make runs when runs are really wanted. But perhaps his bowling should have been mentioned first. It is more or less of the W . W . Armstrong type— real leg breaks mixed with some that don’t break at all. In England his break is bigger than at home, of course. There his best ball is one which pitches on the leg stump and is apt to take the off bail, it is said. Here he can do a good deal more than that, and should get a good many men caught in the slips with his go-away ball on the off. His pace is slow medium. He is a capital field. Cricket is his profession, b y the way, as he is curator to one of the big Melbourne clubs, St. Kilda. His career in first-class cricket has not been a lengthy one. His first game for Victoria was played little more than five years ago. It was against Tasmania at Hobart. He scored 20 in each innings, and had 5 wickets for 93 in the match— 4 for 50 first innings. He was not given a chance in 1907-8 ; and in 1908-9 his only match was v. Tasmania at Launceston. Of the twelve players taken over to the island he was the one left out of the first game—that at Hobart. In the second he took 7 for 49 and 5 for 42, and performed the hat trick at the expense of E. W. Harrison, C. Martin, and T. Elliott in the first innings. After this a better trial sooner or latter was assured him. He played in three matches for Victoria in 1909-10, but, except for 31 v. South Australia at Melbourne, did practically nothing, either w ith bat or ball. He was not included in his state’s first match of the 1910-1 season ; but in the second, against the South Africans, he showed all round form that made him a regular representative from thence on. Put on late in the Afrikanders’ first innings, he captured -three wickets for 13. Then he made 51 in under an hour, and in the second innings of the tourists bowled 18 overs for 33 runs and the wickets of Faulkner, Llewellyn, and Vogler— two of the three “ c and b ,” a method of getting a man out which generally means that the bowler has diddled him in some way. For an Australian X I. against the South Africans at Brisbane he took 4 wickets for 117. Against South Australia at Melbourne he scored 42, helping Armstrong to add 81 for the seventh wicket, but failed in bowling, not being given much to do, for that matter. Against Queensland at Melbourne he scored 35 not out in the second innings, when nearly every­ one else failed. Then, in the N.S.W. match, he made 39 and 50 not out, behind only Kortlang in aggregate. In the return game at Sydney he made 32 not out in the first innings, and in the second game with the South Africans 35, also in the first innings. In none of these three matches, though he bowled steadily and well, could he claim any marked success as a trundler. But he had so enhanced the opinion entertained of his all round ability that he was made twelfth man in the fourth test. In the Warne Benefit match at Melbourne in March he was top scorer for the Australian Eleven with 92 not out, he and Trumper adding 125 together for the sixth wicket. His luck was not in there, for the innings was left unfinished owing to rain, and thus he missed a likely century. The fact that he rarely played in a match without putting up a useful score earned him promotion in the batting order. In the first match of the 1911-2 season, v. South Australia at Adelaide, he was sent in first wicket down, and scored 20 and 44, only Seitz and Ransford making more runs for the side. He also got Clem Hill, Solly Hill, and Mayne at a cost of only 41 runs in South Australia’s first. Against the M.C.C. team he did but moderately ; in the Melbourne match with South Australia he took 5 for 105 ; against N.S.W. at Melbourne he hit up 65 in 49 minutes, and took 3 wickets for 63. Then came his first test match. His bowling was not a success ; but when Australia followed on he batted very pluckily indeed for 53, helping Ransford to add 84 for the eighth wicket. He played in the return between his State and the M.C.C. team ; but his part in the match practically ended with the first day, owing to the death of his child. Against N.S.W. at Sydney he could only bowl four overs, having been hurt at practice, and, doing little in the fourth test, he was left out of the fifth. His choice for the team to England— after the six had refused—was justified rather by his steadily good all round work than by any very brilliant performances, it will be seen. But the man who is steadily useful is possibly quite as big an asset to a side as the brilliant in-and-out player who wins one match and collapses entirely in the next. Already Jimmy Matthews has proved his Worth in England, though only those two hat-tricks are red-lettered in his record. His first-class figures in Australia up to the end of last season are : 34 innings— 4 not outs— 819 runs-—average 27'30 ; 547'3 overs— 1679 runs— 59 wickets—average 28'45. In England to date he has played 9 innings, 2 not outs, for 215 runs, and taken 17 wickets for 339 runs. J. N. P. Principal Matches of Next Week. June 17, 18, 19— Lord’s, Middlesex v. Nottinghamshire. „ 17, 18, 19— Oval, Surrey v. Australians. „ 17, 18, 19— Tonbridge, Kent v. Sussex. ,, 17, 18, 19— Birmingham, Warwickshire v. Lancashire (Field’s Benefit). ,, 17, 18, 19—Northampton, Northants. v. Essex. ,, 17, 18, 19— Leicester, Leicestershire v. Hampshire. ,, 17, 18, 19— Leeds, Yorkshire v. Gloucestershire. „ 17, 18, 19—Bath, Somerset v. South Africans. „ 17, 18— Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire v. Monmouth. ,, 17, 18— Rotherham, Yorkshire 2nd v. Surrey 2nd. ,, 20, 21, 22— Lord’s Middlesex v. Essex. „ 20, 21, 22— Oval, Surrey v. Lancashire. ,, 20, 21, 22— Tonbridge, Kent v. Northamptonshire. „ 20, 21, 22—Nottingham, Notts, v. Yorkshire. „ 20, 21, 22— Coventry, Warwickshire v. Hampshire. ,, 20, 21, 22—Worcester, Worcestershire v. Gloucester­ shire. ,, 20, 21, 22— Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Leicester v. Derby. • ,, 20, 21, 22— Hove. Sussex v. Cambridge University. ,, 20, 21, 22— Taunton, Somerset v. Australians. ,, 20, 21, 22— Swansea, South Wales v. South Africans. ,, 22— Forthill, Forfarshire v. Perthshire. ,, 22—Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire v. Clackmannan. G E O R G E L E W I N & C O . , Club Colour Specialists and Athletic Clothing Manufacturers. OUTFITTERS B Y APPOINTMENT TO The Royal Navy and Arm y, Cornwall, Kent, M iddlesex, Som erset and Surrey Counties, and London Scottish, Irish and Welsh, Blackheath, Harlequins, R ich­ m ond, Catford Rugby Football Clubs, and all the leading Clubs in the British Isles and abroad; M.C.C. S. African Tour, 1909, S. African Cricket Association 1910, and Queen’s Club, Kensington, the RI.C.C. Australian Team 1911-12, and the South African Association Cricket Team 1912. Established 1869. W r it e f o r E stim ates. Telephone: P.O. 607 CITY Works at Camberwell. 8, CROOKED LANE, MONUM ENT , E.C.